I find it mildly ironic that with the introduction of the Walkman Sony had started what I consider to be the "free YOUR music" movement, or maybe the weaker "take YOUR music with you" movement. Now they're more of a "we'll tell you what you can do with OUR music" company. There's a lot of rows on their recent sinister stealth inclusion of copy protection that messes with your computer. I speculate the new philosophy started when they built up their recording and movie divisions.
For me I noticed the trend coming when I started using MiniDiscs. I love those little things (future rave alert). I bought my first portable recorder while on a visit to Japan, in Akihabara, the most incredible and insane consumer electronics area on the planet. It was more of a tape repacement but a sweet one. MP3 players started coming out though and (eventually, ugh!) they got with the program and made a computer connectable series; something that should make sense in the first place since it's a digital media. So I got one of those net-enabled ones and, alas, they intentionally crippled it. You couldn't download stuff you recorded onto it digitally. You couldn't transfer a music file to more than three discs. You had to use their proprietary music format. And you couldn't store non-music files on it, a shame for any type of digital media.
Now they've gone one step further and surreptitiously added stuff to their new CDs that would load and hide itself on your computer, in an effort to prevent you from having illegal music, and without apology. Turns out the technology makes your computer insecure as well. They also cooked up an inane scheme to bind playstation games to a specific console, making them unplayable on other consoles (even the 2nd one you bought because the first one broke), or lend or rent them out. Egads!
Sony was a cool company. This together with how they manage customer service in their online games division, however, makes me want to say phooey to them. Luckily I don't buy many CDs anymore (future rant alert) and know to steer clear of theirs.
4 comments:
I find your site when I blog surfing thank you.
Amy
Ah, TofU... I hear you. Your frustration with all these ridiculous controls over music and copyrighted material. Tell me, is the IPOD subject to such limitations/controls? Does the software "keep track" of downloads and transfers and such? I suppose there are programs on the net that can circumvent these built in controls...
It's an on-going battle though.
How can we, the consumer, tell the difference between an honest attempt to protect somebody's ideas, somebody's work, somebody's music vs corporate greed and power and control?
as far as my limited experience informs me, itunes does keep track of such things like downloads, but it doesn't restrict them anywhere near the level of sony. itunes does limit one download per purchase, so if you lose your files, you're initially out of luck. but there are hacks out there that will allow to get your files back.
also, I can save itunes proprietary files formats on a cd, and have them play on someone else's itunes program with no prob.
i know that audible downloads allow a limited number of times you can burn the book on audio cds.
on the flip side , i sometimes use limewire peer-to-peer network download software for music, and limewire went ahead and created its own playlist on my itunes.
you might want to keep an eye on google's project to scan books still in copyright on the web. book publishers are keen to stop them, setting up a legal battle that will decide which outlook will take precedence: the Internet's inclination to share everything under the article of "fair use" vs. the publisher's right to control how content gets presented. It's a fundamental conflict between online and real world sensibilities.
You think Sony would have learned its lesson with the betamax video format. Quality might have been better, but the recording time was shorter than the VHS format. Plus, it was more expensive and not as readily available as VHS.
I tried to use Sony's connect music download software and IT SUCKS!!! The software itself seemed like a 100 megabyte download, which took forever. Installing was a bitch, and after all that . . . the damned thing still didn't work. The only reason I tried downloading it was cuz of EXCLUSIVE CONTENT (some Mos Def and Lenny Kravitz live stuff). CONTENT is king. CONTENT is king.
Post a Comment